Dyson Preparing a Roomba Killer?

An anonymous reader writes "New Scientist's technology blog reports that Dyson, the UK company that reinvented the vacuum cleaner, is recruiting robotics engineers. They're looking for people with experience of machine vision and mobile robots that create their own maps. Is Dyson hoping to take on the Roomba with a much more sophisticated machine?"

Lolz

[Anonymous Coward]

Dyson is preparing a Roomba Terminator. Dyson must be stopped!

Map creation

[SEWilco]

By "create their own maps" they mean they'll drop build a sphere and drop all the unwanted stuff inside, making the sphere larger when necessary. Eventually it will have its own landscape inside and enclose the Sun in the process.

The Real Roomba Killer

[asolipsist]

Stairs

A sphere?

[hedgemage]

Hmm, would the Dyson model be a massive sphere built around a star that would allow the entire inner surface to be vacuumed?

When it comes to robots...

[Bo'Bob'O]

We might want to re-think our use of the verb 'killer' ..

I mean not that it's bad, just, rather disappointing when you realize the poster didn't mean a battle bots style show down in my living room!

Re:The Real Roomba Killer

[Das Modell]

The Roomba is protected, the Roomba has gone down the stairs.

Ob quote

[Skevin]

Slashdottor: ...a revolutionary type of vacuum cleaner...In three years, Dyson will become the largest supplier of robotic suction devices. All vacuum cleaners are upgraded with Dyson internals, becoming fully unmanned. Afterwards, they clean up after us with a perfect operational record. The Dyson funding bill is passed. The system goes on-line on August 4th, 2007. Human decisions are removed from household cleaning. The Roomba replacement begins to learn, at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 am, eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.

Sarah: DC06 fights back.

Slashdottor: Yes. They all dump their collective dust bunnies on targets in Russia.

John: Why attack Russia? The country's already a dump.

Slashdottor: Because Dyson knows that the Russian refugees fleeing the country will saturate the US work pool and eliminate jobs over here.

Sarah: Jesus.

Sorry, just had to.
Solomon

Re:When it comes to robots...

[Anonymous Coward]

You may want to have another think about your use of the noun "verb"... :)

The Ultimate Roomba Killer

[Palshife]

Daleks.

Re:Hope it's better than the dyson...

[Anonymous Coward]

"They are solid vac's that can pick up my wife's long hair from the carpet."

Which is a great comfort to both myself and your wife after a quickie on the shag pile ;-)
A quick going over with the Dyson and voila - no evidence!

Re:The Real Roomba Killer

[clickety6]

Hmmm.. time to patent my roomba/slinky hybrid...

Killer!

[Wellington Grey]

Please don't kill Roomba! He's my friend [wellingtongrey.net].

Re:They've had a robot vaccum for a couple of year

[ConceptJunkie]

Oh, OK, well I'll order three then.

We would love to have a robotic vacuum cleaner but we just have too much stuff laying around. I guess we'll have to hold out for the robotic maid. Does anyone have Rosie for sale?

Re:ooh!

[myowntrueself]

then she'll step out of the way giving the poor Roomba an annoyed, disdainful look

Do cats ever give anything *but* annoyed, distainful looks?

Vacuums Suck!

[camperdave]

Dyson cylinder is our vacuum cleaner for the last year and I ain't switching!

So, if someone says that a vacuum cleaner sucks... is that a good thing, or a bad thing?

Bad gifts...

[DataBroker]

This is a bit off-topic, but I need to share the lesson I've learned.

NEVER give a woman a holiday present that has an electrical cord. You'll realize this the first time that she tells her friends that you gave her a vacuum for her birthday. Awkward to say the least! Perceptions of earrings, however, varies with whoever hears the story. A rich friend imagines those massive diamond dangly things.
If she says she wants a (corded) Dyson for Christmas, buy one for the house and then give her earrings.

Oh yeah, and yes, my wife, who stays home, actually likes when I give her those gifts that are hard to explain to friends. It's like giving her free time if I give her something that gets the job done faster.

Re:The Real Roomba Killer

[orkysoft]

Won't it just level the building?

Somehow funny story

[Chris whatever]

I have a friend who had one of those cleaning aspirators at home, he was very happy to have something cleaning most of the dirt at home while he was away.

Unfortunately he has a dog and on that specific day the dog pooped one large turd and the small robot just went over it and drag the shit all over his floor so when he came home he could where ever the machine went since is entire floor was covered with dog poop.

Never used the machine again.

one of the main reason is that his dog's manure was in every gear of the thing so it went straight to robot heaven.

Maybe a poop monitoring feature should be installed

Re:Yes, it's strange

[ivan256]

Yeah, but only one of all those models has an arrogant prick in their television commercials.

Re:They've had a robot vaccum for a couple of year

[modecx]

Maybe your roomba thinks this particular spot is especially dirty.

What exactly do you do there? Never mind, I don't really want to know! Sorry I asked.